GAUVIN: Museum sails into Ketch 22 on town’s regulatory current

A Catch 22, more appropriately a Ketch 22 in this case, resulted in a recent stop-work order issued by the town to the Cape Maritime Museum off Bismore Park over a couple of bump-outs.

Paul Gauvin

PAUL GAUVIN PHOTO

A HOME FOR SARAH – Newly built boat shed behind the maritime Museum building on South Street provides affordable housing for the museum’s prime asset but heretofore homeless catboat classic replica “Sarah,” where she will undergo winter maintenance.

A Catch 22, more appropriately a Ketch 22 in this case, resulted in a recent stop-work order issued by the town to the Cape Maritime Museum off Bismore Park over a couple of bump-outs.

The order may have stopped work for a while, but it didn’t stop “the dream” of a brighter future for the museum and the entire harborfront.

A Catch 22 is a situation in which solving a part of a problem creates another problem that ultimately leads back to the original problem. It usually stems from rules or procedures that an individual or entity is subject to, but has no control over.

A “bump out” is a small addition that extends out a bit from the wall of a building to create minimal new space. The two recently collided and after the stop-work respite, the problem was resolved, leading to the enlightenment of the community. What caused the pesky stop-work ticket to be issued can be chalked up to experience.

The actual museum building and property are owned by the town. The town has leased it to the non-profit museum, a separate private entity, for 99 years with conditions the property be maintained and improved by the museum with its own private funds that include a healthy endowment.

Museum officials were doing just that with the help of volunteers and donations. The problem started with the construction of a separate boathouse in the rear of the museum building, said Craig Ashworth, boat /history enthusiast, museum board member and owner of the respected E.B. Norris Builders, Inc., of Osterville.

In the process of securing a building permit for the boathouse that he designed gratis and for which he donated a chunk of his own money and labor, Ashworth said he had included two bump-outs on the main building in the same permit application that was approved. He envisioned the windowed bump outs as showcases/dioramas for some of the fine model work and museum pieces to attract more attention from the street and please the eye of the passerby.

As Ashworth and a few other volunteer workers such as Tom Holmes Jr. of Hyannis completed the boathouse and began framing the “bump-outs,” a town inspector dropped by and ‘red-tagged” the job.

There was a snafu.

That is hard to believe for a town that prides itself, at considerable expense to taxpayers, over its ballyhooed ”one-stop” building services division with its own well-appointed building at Main Street and Yarmouth Road.

“It wasn’t that big a deal,” said Ashworth. “At first I was annoyed because we had fulfilled the requirements, we thought, for the building permit, since it was approved.” Like everybody else, the museum went through the gauntlet of regulatory agencies required by the permit.

The museum board hurdled the growth and management maze only to learn after the stop order that the process should have gotten the approval of David Anthony, the town’s chief procurement officer in charge of town-owned properties. The fact evidently escaped those who issued the original permit.

Another glitch in the original permit, Ashworth was told, is that separate permits are required for separate town buildings. For the museum, it meant jumping through hoops again. “It’s really nobody’s fault,” Ashworth said, who inferred that it was more systemic. “If anything, I would suggest a sign-off sheet for every agency participating in the permit process.” Maybe a signatory would have caught the problems earlier?

This corner reads that as the town having a surfeit of building rules and too many agencies despite the substantial investment in the “one-stop” service that, in this case, has required more than one stop.

The boathouse is the museum’s effort to provide a permanent winter home for “Sarah,” the museum-built premier replica of an 1886 Crosby catboat, a Cape Cod original. The museum offers the boat up for paid lease and various rides in the summertime to support its housing and maintenance.

Ashworth said the museum board has plans to enhance the property and its programs, and thus the harbor front. It plans a symbiotic relationship with the proposed Pirate museum eyeing the town-owned former National Guard armory close by on South Street.

From this corner, the lesson here is that the plethora of building and zoning rules may be stepping over each other and impeding progress. An effort ought to be made to revisit them.